A.L.E. Mazkeret Batya have retained Israel's senior artistic-swimming cup, but only just. The club closed out the combined winter-and-summer standings on 103 points, with Maccabi Tel Aviv breathing down their neck on 101 and Hapoel Jerusalem a more distant third on 88. The national federation lists the summer meet as having run from 12 to 14 July at the Wingate Institute, the country's principal aquatic venue, bringing the domestic senior season to a close.
A two-point margin tells its own story. Mazkeret Batya won the previous edition by 31 points, so watching Maccabi Tel Aviv close that gap to within a single routine's reach changes the picture entirely: retaining the cup this time took depth across the whole programme rather than one dominant performance. Jerusalem's 88 points, meanwhile, kept three clubs meaningfully in contention — a healthier competitive shape than a runaway table would have produced.
Individually, nobody swam better than Katy Kunin. The Hapoel Jerusalem athlete won the senior solo with 231.2763 points, more than 36 clear of Yogev Dagan of Mazkeret Batya on 195.0625 and Maccabi Tel Aviv's Noya Tzarfati on 190.2950. It was a margin that separated the event's established international-level performer from a podium that otherwise reflected the discipline's widening domestic base.
Kunin then completed the double in the duet, teaming up with Noga Levi for a winning score of 240.4263. Aya Mazor and Shia Shar Shalom Nechmad took second on 207.3038, with Noa Kagan and Tzarfati third on 190.7254. The result carries an extra wrinkle: Kunin and Mazor currently form Israel's senior duet on the international stage, so the domestic event put regular national-team partners on opposite sides of a title race before they return to shared international work.
Mazkeret Batya's most emphatic event win came in the acrobatic team routine, where their total of 164.9625 opened a wide gap over Maccabi Tel Aviv's 110.1466 and Artswim's 104.8472. Maccabi Tel Aviv had their answer elsewhere, winning the separate team event with 146.0160 — a result that fed directly into the club's late push up the overall cup table.
There is a broader point behind the medals. Artistic swimming is built from several competitive units — solo, duet, mixed work, team routines and acrobatics — and national-team depth depends on athletes being tested across all of them. A tight club table offers more useful selection evidence than isolated training scores ever could, and Dagan's senior podium finish adds visibility for men in a discipline whose international programme has been expanding mixed opportunities.
Mazkeret Batya leave Wingate with the cup, but not with uncontested control of the field. Maccabi Tel Aviv cut a 31-point deficit from the previous edition down to two, Jerusalem produced the outstanding individual champion of the meet, and several national-team combinations found themselves separated rather than grouped together. The trophy stayed in the same hands; the balance of power around it did not.
